Entre o "encardido", o "branco" e o "branquíssimo": raça, hierarquia e poder na construção da branquitude paulistana

Abstract

Lia Vainer. (2012) "dirty-white", "white" and "super white": race, hierarchy and Power in the construction of paulistano whiteness. The goal of this dissertation is to understand and analyze how the ideas of race and whiteness are constructed and given meaning by white inhabitants in the city of São Paulo. Whiteness is understood as a social-historical construction produced by the deceptive notion of white racial supremacy. In societies that are structured by racism, whiteness generates a situation in which individuals that are identified as white are given symbolic and material priviledge in relation to those individuals considered not white. I present a review of references in the field of critical whiteness studies connected to Social Psychology and Social Sciences, pointing out its implications to the understanding of contemporary racism. I also present the history of race as a concept formulated in 19th century European academic thought and its reflections in the paulistano social thought in the present. Field research was conducted through interviews and informal conversation with individuals from diverse social class, age and gender that self-identified themselves as white. Our aim was to understand the heterogen caracter of whiteness in São Paulo. Analyses demonstrated that, for these individuals, biological and hieraquic cultural discourses remain as explanation to racial differences, and racism is still a structural element of paulistano white racial identity. We also noticed that the social meaning that derives from the notion of whiteness operates in white individuals, indicating internal hieraquical differences. Whiteness is therefore dislocated and relocated in relation to social origin and class, regional, gender and fenotipical differences, which demonstrates that the category White is internally controversial and that some kinds of whiteness are indicative of hierarquical power within it.

Negros e indígenas ocupam o templo branco: ações afirmativas na UFRGS

“…Nessa imagem, o país era visto como uma civilização tropical tendo como características a mestiçagem e a democracia racial, passando a mistura entre as raças a ser apresentada como uma vantagem comparativa com relação a outras nações. Essa mistura não foi apenas biológica; ela, também, foi cultural, mas se deu a partir de uma visão hierárquica baseada em relações assimétricas entre as raças (Schwarcz, 1996).…”

Cor ou Ele escreveu um texto sobre a peça dos brancos

“…Entendendo a branquitude como um constructo ideológico de poder, em que os brancos tomam sua identidade racial como norma e padrão, e des sa forma outros grupos aparecem ora como margem, ora como desviantes, ora ainda como inferiores (Schucman, 2014), ela se constitui como um ele mento que não necessita do outro, negro, para manifestarse, uma vez que se entende como norma e nega a racialização que lhe é inerente. Em contra ponto, a negritude só pode existir diante da necessidade de defesa de uma Conrado Dess coletividade muitas vezes apagada, neutralizada pelo outro, como explana o excerto a seguir:…”

African-Brazilians and Natives in an Elite University: The Impact of Affirmative Action on Students in Brazil

“…Some authors consider recognition to be a fourth kind of right, along with civil, political and social rights. Examples of non-recognition towards African-Brazilians and Natives in Brazil are not lacking [Schucman, 2014]. This may become manifested as low self-esteem and reduced expectations among youth, who do not hope for a better future.…”